Yusuf Pathan Enters Politics, Contests For West Bengal

Reports circulating in the Indian media indicate that Yusuf Pathan, a two-time World Cup winner for India, has ventured into politics and is set to contest the Lok Sabha elections in the Baharampur constituency of West Bengal.

The revelation of Pathan’s political debut came from Abhishek Banerjee, the National General Secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), on Sunday. With this move, Pathan becomes the third member of the 2011 World Cup-winning cricket team to transition to a political career, following Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh.

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Pathan’s younger brother, Irfan, took to social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) to extend his best wishes, acknowledging Yusuf’s qualities of patience, kindness, assistance to the needy, and dedication to serving the people, even without an official position. Irfan expressed confidence that Yusuf would make a meaningful impact on the daily lives of the people in his new political role.

As the announcement unfolds, Pathan is expected to contend against Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in the Lok Sabha polls. While the Congress is yet to finalize its candidates for Bengal, Chowdhury is anticipated to recontest the Lok Sabha seat that he has represented five times before.

The Congress party has expressed a desire for a respectful seat-sharing agreement with the TMC in West Bengal. Jairam Ramesh, a senior Congress leader, emphasized that such agreements should be determined through negotiations rather than unilateral announcements. The Congress party envisions a collaborative effort, with the INDIA group working together to combat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the region.

Yusuf Pathan, renowned for his cricketing contributions, represented India in 57 ODIs and played a vital role in the T20 World Cup in 2007 and the ODI World Cup-winning team in 2011. Besides his international achievements, Pathan played crucial roles for the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL), securing two IPL trophies with the former in 2012 and 2014.